Eight buckets!

No Gold rings, partridges or turtle doves, and whilst the maids a milking may have brought them I was only left with the eight buckets, that’s what my true love got me for Christmas! With a capacity of 20 Litres, standing 33 cm tall and 33cm in diameter, not to mention the snap close, air tight lids and sturdy carrying handles. What more could I possibly want?

The white plastic looks almost food grade and it is polished to a high sheen which is soft and smooth to the touch, it wasn’t long before I had put the first one into service, confidant that it will serve it’s purpose well and will be in service for many years to come.

Having multiple buckets brings many advantages, but most of all I’m looking forward to the balance they provide, although it’s only my theory that two buckets are easier to carry than one? It’s also true to say that I will be able to set my own schedule, no longer a slave to a single buckets capacity, with the added luxury of multiple buckets (with lids) I may be able to wait out even the most inclement weather for the right moment to venture out.

I can’t speak for each individual bucket, but I am confidant that collectively they would save our family over £1500 over ten years in water charges, if we were connected to the mains. And that figure is assuming no increase in the price of water, which is very unlikely, not bad for a £20 investment.

I suppose the only downside to the gift is the work ahead to fulfil the promise that I made once I had the buckets in my possession, but I’m secretly looking forward to the challenge, even if some of my design ideas never passed Gosias scrutiny and exacting standards.

So what are the buckets for?

The composting toilets of course!

Although I don’t like to bore people with humanure facts, I’d like to share the startling calcualation that it takes between 1,000 and 2,000 tonnes of water to deal with 1 tonne of crap in it’s various stages before its released back into the wild. Just because you forget about it after you flush it down the loo doesn’t mean it’s journey devouring resources has finished. So consider this, with a population of only 6 billion there isn’t enough fresh water in the world for everyone to have a flushing toilet, never mind the 8-10 billion we are heading towards by 2050.

Anyhow, must go, nature calls. Happy New Year!!

P.S. I noticed that someone viewed an old post regarding the frequency of emptying the toilet, information that is considerably out of date now. So for the record and to provide some clarity, a family of three (yes Malina is contributing) I am changing the bucket every four or five days. With the added buckets I expect to empty two buckets every week or so and I’m less likely to have to stand up to have a shit!

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Author: Eddy Winko

Trying to leave the rat race and live a less hectic and harmful life. From the building of a straw bale house to the composting toilet diaries; read my blog https://winkos.wordpress.com/
View all posts by Eddy Winko

15 thoughts on “Eight buckets!”

Wow! Just a dream.
I’m dead serious. I tried to find such piece of article hard & failed.
Once I found one of right capacity, it was too wide, the one of right width didnt have snach lid.. crappy plastic , braking holders… and so on
So I’m still using paint containers I had at the begining but they require frequent exchanging due to small capacity.

Btw. I suppose U do not face this problem but will share idea anyway.
As I live in a town & I dont have permanent access to straw bales, I frequently use cartoon in the form of egg matrix. ( of which local egg seller is pretty happy to get rid off ) to balance carbon content in my compost pile…

Happy New Year to you all. Recovering this morning from not only the traditional Romanian New year feast with Romanian friends staying over, but ‘open house’ yesterday for Petronela’s birthday (Romanian tradition) with ‘house’ and bellies very full. I think I can confirm the ‘balance’ theory: I used it to manage to carry ‘a few’ bottles of wine from the Romanian shop in Leeds (not that I walked all the way back – there is a train). Waiting for the Vienna concert to start, which also has become a ‘tradition’ for us, then a walk to show our Romanian friends the beautiful area in which we live. Again, happy New Year!

Eight buckets is a real luxury, Eddy. The most I ever had was five and I had to buy them myself. Yes, carrying two buckets at a time might balance you off, but they can get mighty heavy. If you’re going down a flight of steps, I usually only carry one at a time picturing in my mind what it would look like if the wire handle decided to break. 🙂

I know, I can’t believe how lucky I am, mind you there will be four toilets in the house when the guest rooms are done. I may even need more 🙂
I’ll keep that thought in mind and my feet firmly on the ground. No beer when I’m on toilet duty 🙂

I am now left with the vision of you standing to shit! Not the best start to a new year Eddy. I am very pleased to see you back though, albeit late to the party. I am constantly pondering on the humanure issue, as you know, so I was pleased to read that eight buckets will go a long way to solving many problems.
Have a great 2015 you three.
Best wishes as always, from a sunny Norfolk. Pete.

What a posh toilet 🙂 I must try harder in my design efforts. I have just over two weeks to make a toilet and a door for the bathroom, in time for Gosias birthday and no doubt some bashful guests!
Happy New Year!